Gift Shopping
by Geckoguy555
Summary: It's May's birthday and one member of the group can't find that 'Perfect Gift.' Is the object a mere myth...or could it actually exist? Advanceshipping
1. May's Birthday

**I was bored…so I wrote this…the Advanceshipping is near the end. Enjoy.**

**I do NOT own Pokémon**

"What to get, what to get…" Ash asked no one in particular as he browsed through the shelves trying to find the fabled 'Perfect Gift' for one traveling companion. He had spent the past four hours shopping for such a thing and was seriously beginning to doubt it existed. The only thing he had bought was a large bottle of ketchup which was now being happily suckled by the yellow rodent who was wobbly sitting on the raven haired teen's shoulder.

"This is impossible." Ash sighed as he sifted through piles of books and a few movies.

"What'cha lookin' fer young'un?" An old lady appearing out of seemingly nowhere asked.

The answer was slightly muffled as the startled Ash tumbled into the pile of dusty books. After removing himself from the previously stated pile of books Ash repeated himself, "I'm looking for a birthday gift for a friend." Ash said as his face turned a slightly darker shade of red.

"Oh…I think I understand. How's this?" The lady asked as she held up a rather large, metal, pot.

"She'd kill me with it." Ash responded the quaver of fear in his voice obvious.

"She's that strong?" The lady asked rather disbelievingly.

"No, but her cooking is…" The he replied with a small cringe.

The next hour was spent with the lady brandishing everything from books, to some lesser known romance movies, to a 'Number 1 friend!' coffee mug… May didn't even drink coffee. Eventually Pikachu disappeared to go buy his own gift.

As hope for the 'Perfect Gift' was dwindled the lady emerged from the pile of miscellaneous odds-and-ends with a rather small box.

"This, I think will be what you're lookin' fer young'un." The elderly shopkeeper said as she handed Ash the box.

"A digital picture frame?" Ash asked.

"That doohickey takes all sorts of technology you young'uns use today, it can hook up to a Pokénav, Pokégear, Pokétch, and a Pokédex." The lady explained.

"That's perfect, thanks Miss…" Ash started but realized he didn't know her name.

"Sally." The elderly lady introduced herself with a smile.

"Sally, right, thanks but I gotta run now." Ash said hurriedly as he paid for the item and ran out of the store.

Twenty minutes of jogging and one rather frantic scramble up a surprisingly steep hill later and Ash finally slowed to a walk in order to transfer some pictures from his Pokédex to the picture frame. As the pictures filled the small screen Ash noticed that Pikachu had caught up with him, the rodent dragged one large ketchup bottle behind him, and carried a card between his teeth, as if that weren't enough the faithful Pokémon also balanced a wrapped gift on it's head.

"I don't even want to know how much you spent…" Ash muttered.

A slightly muffled, "Pika!" was the only response.

Ash was about to respond when a picture caught his eye; the one taken at the Holiday party, the moment when Ash and May were caught under the mistletoe was now saved onto the picture frame. Ash smiled at the memory.

"O-oh, well n-no breaking tradition, r-right?" May had said as her face darkened.

As Will had said, that was a pretty interesting Holiday party. After the rest of the pictures uploaded Ash hid the gift in side pocket of his backpack.

After a ten minute walk Ash returned to the makeshift camp and found a rather eager May awaiting him.

"So…where'd ya go?" May asked nonchalantly.

"Nowhere." Ash replied as he crossed his arms over his chest.

May replied by sticking her tongue out at him.

"Real mature May, real mature…" Ash laughed.

The day slowly dragged by until the sun had set. The Ash, Brock, and Max all gathered around the fire each with a package, a few minutes later May emerged from her tent with Pikachu standing on her shoulders covering her eyes. After a few stumbles and one collision with a tree May was seated on a log across from the group.

"Well, here's what I got you." Max said enthusiastically, as he handed May his sloppily wrapped present. After a few minutes of frantic tearing later, and May had in her possession a special hair brush for her Eevee (from Max,) a new bandana (from Brock,) and a box of one hundred packets of ketchup (from Pikachu.)

"I would've wrapped it but you were constantly right behind me…" Ash trailed off as he handed her the picture frame.

"What is it?" May asked as she inspected the small rectangle.

"A digital picture frame, I saved a few onto it already." Ash replied as he turned the device on.

May grinned as she saw the picture of Ash in his swim trunks with a Remoraid firmly attached to his posterior.

"That wasn't funny you know…" Ash muttered as he gently rubbed his backside.

The slideshow continued showing pictures of May winning her first Contest, when she first battled with Torchic, and more. Eventually a picture of the group all together appeared, Ash and May were laughing as Brock was pulled away from Nurse Joy by Max while Pikachu and a Charmander were shown hoisting Eevee onto their shoulders. Eevee was subsequently tossed into a small puddle, while Brock began to cry, and Ash and May were literally leaning on each other for support as they continued to laugh.

"How'd you get this?" May asked as she smiled at the memory.

"I got in touch with Will." Ash replied.

Before May could respond the final picture appeared, the same one that caught Ash's attention earlier now caused both teens to blush.

"I-I didn't know anyone took a picture!" May stuttered.

"Neither did I, but then again I also didn't realize Will had pick-pocketed my Pokédex." Ash replied.

"Well, it wasn't _that_ bad, was it?" May asked.

"N-no, not r-really." Ash stammered.

May started to slowly close the distance between herself and Ash, just before the two could kiss however, a flash startled the pair apart.

"Yeah, that's a keeper." Brock snickered as he checked the display of his Pokédex.

"I wonder how Dad will react." Max laughed as he too saw the picture.

Unfortunately for the two of them, neither noticed that the temperature had dropped by nearly ten degrees.

"Oh…I don't think Dad will ever see that picture…" May said darkly.

And with that, the beatings ensued.

**Well, thanks for reading this. Review if you want, if not that's okay too.**


	2. Ash's Birthday

**Well, this was only supposed to be a one-shot but… I forgot to make the status thing say 'Complete.' So…well here's another chapter.**

**I do NOT own Pokémon **

This was torture, plain and simple. All Ash wanted to do was to train with his Pokémon like usual, but instead the raven haired teen found himself locked inside of his room back in Pallet Town.

"Let's go back to Pallet," Ash said in a mocking tone, "We could meet up with everyone. I can't believe I fell for that, May and her stupid Pichu eyes…" And so started an hour of grumbling.

_*Scene Change*_

"Are you sure it was smart to lock Ash in his room?" A brunette asked her red haired friend as they walked away from the Pallet Mall.

"Well, he'll probably fall asleep from boredom." Misty replied.

"Or lack of food." May added.

Neither girl seemed to notice the heavily tanned male who was crawling along the ground, the combined weight of the shopping bags he was carrying on his back had caused his knees to buckle long ago and eventually he gave up on walking all together.

"Brock, will you hurry up?" May called over her shoulder.

"Where are we even going to wrap all these?" Misty asked.

"Gary said that the lab was fine." May replied as they turned at an intersection.

*_Scene Change*_

"Dear, sweet, Arceus." Will said as he watched Brock crawl through the doors of the Oak's Lab.

"What?" Both girls asked in unison.

Will only shook his head in response.

The lab soon had gifts of all sizes laid out across tables and counters, and within the hour Will, Leon, May, Misty, Tracey, Gary, Max, Brock, Pikachu, and Richie had their gifts wrapped, signed, and hidden, and were drawing sticks to see who should go retrieve the birthday boy.

"You can't be serious…" Will muttered as he saw the stick he had drawn, not even the size of a Wurmple's horn.

And so Will, Tracey and Pikachu were roaming the streets as they made their way to the Ketchum Residence.

"Talk about luck, I don't think Mrs. Ketchum would have approved of us locking her son in his room." Tracey laughed.

"It's not 'luck' Tracey, the only reason she's in Johto right now is because May, and I convinced Mrs. Maple to invite her to that convention, no idea what May had to do though…" Will trailed off.

_*Scene Change*_

"The things I do for that boy…" May muttered with a light blush as she placed a picture of herself and Torchic prancing around a Pokéball sitting on the ground in an envelope. In the Pokéball was a rather playful Skitty. From that day onward the group always had to be careful about where they left their loose change, lest the kitten Pokémon find it.

_*Scene Change*_

Ash woke from a rather pleasant slumber to the sound of the front door being opened. At first he thought his mother had returned, but then thought better of it. The convention, after all was scheduled to last another week. Carefully Ash grabbed an umbrella that was leaning against the wall, and slowly made his way to the door. Within a minute the door was opened and the only thing that kept Tracey from being knocked unconscious was Will's hand grabbing the umbrella and throwing it aside.

"Easy there, Killer." Will grinned at Ash.

"You are by far the cruelest person I have ever met…" Ash replied.

"Well, that's too bad; I mean we _were_ going to show you an amazing spot for catching Pokémon but…" Tracey trailed off.

"Well what're we waiting for?" Ash shouted in excitement, as he dragged the two out of the house and down the street with Pikachu barely hanging onto Ash's shoulder. Twenty minutes later the group had convinced Ash to follow them to the lab.

Ash, Will, and Tracey, all walked into the lab to find the lights turned off and no one in sight.

"Well?" Ash asked expectantly.

There was silence for a second then, "SURPRISE!" resounded throughout the facility. Ash's reaction was to shriek out of surprise, this of course had everyone in the lab laughing at their friend's current predicament. Two minutes later the cake was cut, and gifts were given. Ash received a Pokégear from Max, a new pair of jeans from Brock, a small crate of Pokéballs from Richie, a pair of socks from Gary, a book on battle tactics from Misty, a framed picture of the entire group from Will, a plushy Pikachu from Leon, and a bottle of ketchup from Pikachu. As the actual party started the attendees started to form their own groups, Ash, Gary, and Richie, all started talking about battle strategies, while Misty, Will, Max, and Brock all discussed current events meanwhile Leon and May hung on the fringes of the group, watching as Pikachu gorged itself on ketchup, cake and Pokéchow.

"Like Trainer, like Pokémon…" Leon said bemusedly.

Soon Ash noticed May sitting down looking a little sad.

"Nothing, I'm just tired. Do you want to see your present?" May asked excitedly.

"Sure." Ash replied as May led him up the stairs to the roof of the lab.

As the pair got comfortable Ash couldn't help but noticed how bright the stars seemed.

'_Maybe it's just 'cause I'm with May.'_ The teen thought before gently shaking his head.

"I wanted to give this to you without eighteen eyes peering over your shoulder." May said as she handed Ash a ribbon.

"May, this, this is the first Ribbon you won." Ash responded in stunned disbelief.

"And I couldn't have done it without you." May replied as her face darkened.

"I honestly don't know what to say." Ash said simply.

"You could try, 'thanks.'" May giggled.

"Thank you, May."

"Oh, that's only the first part," May replied as she stood on tiptoes to give Ash a quick peck on the lips, "Happy Birthday, Ash."

"That was the best birthday gift I've ever received." Ash said as his cheeks turned bright red.

"Well, if that wasn't cheesy." May giggled.

"Does it at least earn me another kiss?" Ash asked joked.

"Hmm… sure, why not?" May replied as the two shared their first official, and rather passionate kiss.

A few minutes later May heard a sound that Ash did not; the door to the roof being opened and someone reaching for their Pokédex. She had a sneaking suspicion as to who the person was.

To put it simply, May was glad she asked Leon to steal the batteries from Brock's Pokédex.

**Wow… I can't believe how long this is, please excuse any grammatical errors, I stayed up until 7:10 finishing this... the ending was kind of rushed as well…so yeah… I'm gonna go to sleep now… **


End file.
